Wild Cider’s lemon basil and Bee Hoppy are bliss

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You’ll find cans in local liquor stores, but a venture down dirt roads into the heart of Weld County fracking country proves fruitful at Wild Cider’s scenic hub. It’s got a covered patio, a soccer ball billiards board and a wood oven for pizza service. We nab a kick-ass spicy Sriracha pizza ($13), sporting a thin, airy crust made with cider in its dough; it’s porky with bacon, thick with mozzarella, and even hotter with jalapeños atop. Its heat’s slightly mitigated by the sweetness of an overall excellent cider showing, sampled in four-pour, $6 flights. We try a dozen, taking too many notes, so let’s skip to our favorites: the superb lemon basil, big and herbaceous and probably amazing with Thai food; the Bee Hoppy, sweet with local honey and robust with a Cascade hop dry-hopping; and our own blending of the spiced apple pie and pumpkin flavors, neither cloying, nor overly baking-spice-infused — just right in equal ratios, wherein you
can taste the crust, so to speak. On the whole, this tops my list of cideries.